Following on from our previous blog post, we have created a ‘September Transition tips for parents’ blog to provide some practical advice on how to best prepare and support your child with these changes. As established in our previous post, change can be chaotic and stressful for any child which may result in challenging behaviour. The start of a new school year is no different and can be a particularly demanding time for both parents and children. The following tips can be used during that back-to-school phase to support children during this transitional time.
- Get back into a good routine. Planning ahead and ensuring children are in a good routine improves their mood and ability to engage in learning .
- Respond to a child’s worry and anxiety. By recognising when children are struggling and trying to understand what is going on for them, this helps children to feel less alone with their difficulties and more able to do things they are worried about.
- Use a step-by-step plan. Set positive goals and break these down into steps. Rewards can be attached to each step to encourage the behaviour and after each step is complete, it should be reviewed to determine how well that stage went.
- Remind child of resilience. Remind your child of a time when they have coped well in unfamiliar and uncertain situations previously and how they can use these skills to manage the new situation.
- Maintain a positive attitude towards school. It is very important you do not project your anxieties onto your children. Think about how your children will interpret things you say about school. Avoid using questions like: are you scared? (this is a scary experience), what is worrying you? (now they know they should be worried about something), i think you feel… (you’re assuming their feelings), how can i fix this? (you can’t solve everything).
- Look for non-verbal cues. Children sometimes struggle to express how they’re feeling and instead this may manifest as nervous behaviours. Chewing, tummy aches and bedwetting are all typical signs of anxiety to look out for.
- What will stay the same and what will change? When a child moves class, lots of familiar routines will actually stay the same. Take time to discuss with your child what will change but also what will remain unchanged e.g. staying with friends in their class, having break time and lunchtime, receiving homework etc. This may help alleviate their worries.
Abi and Joel
Student Occupational Therapists
Next week for our final blog we will introduce ‘The Transition Toolbox’ we have been working on.
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